See Monticello's Previously Off-Limits Floors For the First Time
The Sky Room
Monticello’s signature Palladian dome covers a 500-square foot octagonal room with a glass oculus at its peak. It is still not known how (or even if) the room was furnished during Jefferson’s day, but the ochre walls and grass-green floor mimic the home's original color scheme.
History With a View
A voluminous keeper of notes and diaries, Jefferson recorded most aspects of daily life at Monticello, making it one of the most well-documented historic homes in the United States. The nine rooms on the second and third floors of the house have long been unfurnished and remained, until recently, relatively unseen by the more than half a million tourists who come to the site each year.
Spiral Staircase
Barely of shoulder width, the two steep three-story side stairs that Jefferson designed must have required a fair amount of negotiation between the family members, guests, and enslaved servants who would have often been traversing the tight spaces at the same time.
Martha Jefferson Randolph’s Bedroom
Jefferson’s eldest daughter was the only one of his children to live past the age 25. She became the de facto mistress of Monticello once her mother passed away, dutifully running her father’s house until his death. In these tight quarters, she raised twelve kids, all the while entertaining an almost nonstop parade of visitors passing through to see her illustrious father.
The Nursery
“I live in the midst of my grandchildren,” Thomas Jefferson said to John Adams in 1812. The restoration team encountered great difficulty pulling back over a century of renovations to the upper floor nursery that he installed so that Martha could sleep in close proximity to her children.
Window Views
At many spots on the upper floors of the house, windows let in sunlight and showcase expansive views over the still-unspoiled landscape of Virginia’s Albemarle County.
Anne Scott Jefferson Marks’ Bedroom
Jefferson’s youngest sister (most often called "Aunt Marks") lived at Monticello as a childless widow from 1811 until she passed away in 1828. Judging by letters of Jefferson's grandchildren, Aunt Marks' constant presence could be sometimes irritating, even if well-intentioned.
Bedroom Still Life
An arrangement of objects related to the study of natural history is displayed in one of the restored upstairs bedrooms.
Viewing Windows
A series of steps lead to a window that could be opened to check the weather or look at the stars with a telescope.
Historic Cat Doors
Before the invention of doggie doors, Jefferson installed round holes in the upper story doors in order to allow mouse-hunting housecats to easily go from room to room.
Family Bedroom
In one of the bedrooms, an alcove that once might have housed a bed is reimagined and restyled as an early 19th-century closet.
Hidden retreat
Accessed through a doorway in the dome room, a rustic hidden attic space called “the cuddy” sits directly above the rear portico of the house. It was used by Jefferson’s adult granddaughters to escape the hubbub of the highly social household. The demi-lune (half-moon) window looks out over the back lawn and flower gardens.
The Behind the Scenes Tour, which lasts 1 hour 50 minutes, is offered six times a day and costs $55 per person for up to 14 people per tour. Reservations are essential.
